Dancing in a circle is a reminder that we are part of the whole

A schedule of performances and reading groups will accompany the exhibition.

Dancing in a circle is a reminder that we are part of the whole | Romany Dear











About CCA:



CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts is Glasgow’s hub for creative activity. The building is steeped in history and the organisation has played a key role in the cultural life of the city for decades. CCA’s year-round programme includes cutting-edge exhibitions, film, music, literature, spoken word, festivals, Gaelic language events and much more. CCA also provides residencies for artists in the on-site Creative Lab space, as well as working internationally with residencies in Norway and Canada. CCA curates six major exhibitions a year, presenting national and international contemporary artists, and is home to Intermedia Gallery which showcases emerging artists. www.cca-glasgow.com



About Romany Dear:



Romany Dear graduated from Glasgow School of Art, from the Environmental Art department in 2011 and currently lives and work in Glasgow. Romany has recently performed at or exhibited in: Live work & video, The Northern Charter, Newcastle 2014, Continue without loosing consciousness, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee 2014, The Glasgow Weekend, Berlin Art Week, Berlin 2013, Dance is a Language That We Speak, Intermedia, CCA, Glasgow 2013, Studio 58: Women Artists Since World War 2, Mackintosh Gallery, Glasgow 2012 and They Had Four Years, Generator Gallery, Dundee 2012.



About Glasgow Open Dance School:



Glasgow Open Dance School is a not for profit organisation that programs and facilitates free dance and movement related workshops and events in and around Glasgow. G.O.D.S was set up in 2011 by Julia Scott, Ashanti Harris and Romany Dear to be an open group, intended for anybody with a desire to move, dance, learn and share. G.O.D.S strongly believes that everyone is a dancer! In 2014 G.O.D.S ran a six week project at Market Gallery comprising of a free bookable dance studio and audio visual and text based resource rooms along with a programme of regular and one off workshops. They also facilitated a four week programme of dance workshops and film screenings for Black History Month between CCA and Kinning Park Community Centre. To find out about all future events join the mailing list by sending an email togetthebodyofagod@gmail.com. www.glasgowopendanceschool.co.uk

Bestiares as Theology?

Duda Paiva is a perfect example of how blurred lines are far more acceptable in performance than in pop videos. Paiva was trained as a dancer (in Brazil), arrived in the Netherlands, discovered an aptitude for puppetry and mixed it all together into art that is choreography, puppetry and something beyond the two. A series of shows have developed his distinctive style, which encourages a dialogue between puppet and dancer: like a good post-modern artist, Paiva reveals the way he creates through the way he performs. And while his website boasts that he has represented the Netherlands in many festivals, it is fortunate that manipulate has a wide yet clear remit: Bestiares is unlikely to fit into a simple category.

Bestaires plugs into two competing ideas about the nature of gods and puppets: one I nicked from Grant Morrison's Invisibles, the other from Jurkowski's survey of European puppetry. Bestaires offers an evening's entertainment hosted by the god Cupid - in puppet form - and brings the gods of the classical pantheon back on stage. It's not just that, as a former classicist, I am always pleased to be reminded of things I know a little about. I think there is no better place for divinities than in a performance.

Following Morrison, Bestiares is a sharp reminder of the fiction of theology. While Morrison's post-modern mash-up of paganism, conspiracy theory and action adventure can be difficult to follow, there are repeated hints that the various gods and demons that appear are little more than masks or puppets. When one Invisible is introduced to magick (sic), the question of 'who is wearing the mask of the gods?' suggests that these gods are puppets and the strings are being pulled by people. A dancer and a puppet of cupid would be the perfect visual representation of this...

Interestingly, Alan Moore, Morrison's great rival for magus of the UK/best British comic book writer, has a similar theory. He spent some worshipping a snake god because - and here's the catch - he knew that its original incarnation was as a puppet in a Roman con-man's religious rip-off. The reminder, for Moore, that this was not an animate being, was crucial as a balance against his various encounters with what appeared to be supernatural beings. 

Jurkowski goes the opposite way: noting that the medieval church was a bit touchy about the matter of puppets, he postulates that they held a religious potency - that they represented the divine. While the idea of a puppet as an icon might clash with more familiar religious art, the mystery of the puppeteers art lends the uncanny to their performance. 

Bestaires is the start of manipulate: and what better way to begin than with a ritual that is, in both of these senses, fundamentally spiritual?